Copenhagen to take up the duties of his consulship. The salary attached to the post was barely 300l., and after a brief trial, including a visit in the summer of 1818 to Iceland, he determined to resign it. Returning for that purpose to London, he was allowed to transfer the consulship to his son, and to travel for his health on the continent. After Lord Castlereagh's death in 1822 he was informed by Canning that government desired to have as little to do with him and his family as possible, and that the consulship would be abolished but an adequate allowance allotted him. He retired permanently to Paris, where he loved to parade his pompous person in the Champs-Elysées. He is said to have undergone a religious conversion in 1831. In the following year he was attacked by cholera, to the effects of which he eventually succumbed on 18 Aug. 1836. He was interred in the family vault in Welton church, Yorkshire. In 1839 his younger son, Thomas (d. 1848), undertook the task of vindicating his father's character; but the investigations of Madden, and more recently of Fitzpatrick, do not tell in Reynolds's favour. A more judicial and less hostile view is taken by Mr. Lecky.
[Reynolds's Life of Thomas Reynolds, to which is prefixed an excellent portrait; Madden's United Irishmen, vol. i.; Curran's Life of Curran; Fitzpatrick's Secret Service under Pitt, containing much curious information; Howell's State Trials, vol. xxvii.; Lecky's Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Century; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography.]
REYNOLDS, WALTER (d. 1327), archbishop of Canterbury, was the son of a baker in Windsor named Reginald (Anglia Sacra, i. 532). ‘Reynolds,’ though a patronymic in form, seems commonly used in his case as a true surname. He is called ‘Heyne’ in ‘Annales Londinenses,’ p. 229, and ‘Heyerne’ in ‘Annales Paulini,’ p. 264. He was brought up at the court of Edward I (Ann. Paul. p. 257), and became one of that king's clerks or chaplains. He is described as a ‘simple clerk’ and ‘imperfectly educated,’ having, it is suggested, taken no academic degree (Monk of Malmesbury, p. 197; cf. Flores Hist. iii. 155; Chron. de Lanercost, p. 222). On 23 Jan. 1294 Edward I presented him to the church of Wimbledon in Surrey, the royal right of patronage depending upon the vacancy of the archbishopric of Canterbury (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, p. 128). Some informalities, however, and more than four years' litigation in the ecclesiastical courts intervened before Walter got possession of the benefice. Among other early preferments of Reynolds was the rectory of Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire, which he only resigned on his appointment to the see of Worcester (Newcourt, Repert. Eccl.)
Reynolds seems to have been one of those evil-living, secular-minded clerks whom Edward I did not scruple to use in his rougher business, and did not hesitate to add to the household of Edward, his young son. He is said to have been made the prince's tutor. Anyhow, he became the chief favourite and confidant of the young prince, who describes him as one ‘qui a nostro ætatis primordio nostris insistens obsequiis, secreta præ cæteris nostra novit’ (Fœdera, ii. 101; cf. Sussex Archæol. Coll. ii. 87). Before 1305 Reynolds was keeper of the young Edward's wardrobe, and the Prince of Wales was soon exerting all his influence to get preferment for his ‘very dear clerk for the good services which he has long rendered us, and yet does day by day’ (Blaauw, in Sussex Arch. Coll. pp. 86–87). At the same period Reynolds devised means to supply the young Edward's necessities when his angry father had cut off all supplies. The heedless prince ordered Reynolds to provide a pair of strong trumpets for his ‘little players,’ and a pair of kettle-drums for ‘Francekin his nakarer’ (ib. p. 248). The former request corroborates the story that Reynolds owed his favour with the prince to his skill in theatricals (Monk of Malmesbury, p. 197). Reynolds was also accused of dissolute and indecorous life (Flores Hist. iii. 155). Yet Edward I, though not promoting him, did not drive him, like Gaveston, from his son's household.
Reynolds's good fortune began with Edward II's accession. He obtained the prebend of Wildland in St. Paul's Cathedral (Newcourt, Repert. Eccles. i. 224). On 22 Aug. 1307 he succeeded the disgraced Walter Langton [q. v.] in the office of treasurer (Dugdale, Chronica Series, p. 34), and he was henceforth able to devote the same cunning to replenishing the national exchequer that he had hitherto devoted to filling the private coffers of the Prince of Wales. A few months later the king's favour made him bishop of Worcester, in succession to William of Gainsborough, who died on 17 Sept. 1307. He received restitution of temporalities on 5 April 1308, and was consecrated on 13 Oct. by Archbishop Winchelsey at Canterbury (ib. p. 264), the king attending the ceremony in person.
Walter's life continued to be a cause of scandal (cf. Flores Hist. iii. 156). His main attention was still devoted to affairs of state. In the Lent of 1309 he was sent on a mission to the papal court at Avignon (Ann. Paulini, p. 267; Fœdera, ii. 69). He was also em-
